Cardano Representative

Hi all.

I’ve been a bit absent lately, having decided to take a break from Twitter. Why I chose to do this is a topic for another blog that I may never write. However, it gave me some time to reflect on my values, why I’m in crypto, what I’m trying to accomplish, and if and how I wanted to represent the Cardano community in the Voltaire era.

I have decided to register as a decentralized representative, or DRep. My DRep Identifier is:

drep1y2sld9e4nmasqfpusd5e67rwczj4l20d3653jgs38r4mams52y4jx

My DRep metadata can be found here.

Given that the governance standard currently (and in my opinion, incorrectly) specifies a maximum length for certain fields, this blog serves as a slightly longer-form explanation of my objectives and plan as a DRep.

Objectives

As a Cardano representative, I will vote on governance proposals in accordance with the values outlined below (listed from most general principle to least).

1. Integrity - I believe that holding and adhering to a self-consistent and honest belief system is integral to a well-functioning society; that while technology like modern cryptography, zero knowledge proofs, and blockchains can help codify and enforce elements of trust, it is still important to value and prioritize that integrity and penalize those who demonstrate dishonesty and hypocrisy.

2. Freedom - I believe that every person is entitled to live the life they are able to create, free of harm or undue interference, so long as that doesn’t materially infringe on another person’s right to the same; but that this freedom does not confer an immunity to the social consequences of ones actions.

3. Social Good - I believe that free market associations can efficiently mediate consensual relationships among parties of similar power dynamic, but that they fail dramatically in cases where those assumptions are violated. That some external structures are required to account for externalities such as poverty, exploitation, or our common shared environment. I am personally building in this space to provide new options for these external structures, and lift the median and floor on the quality of life for human experience.

4. Technical Soundness - I believe that any upgrade or parameter change to the Cardano network should be approached cautiously, with ample evidence provided ahead of time pertaining to the health, liveness, and stability of the network as a whole. We should favor a careful ‘measure twice, cut once’ philosophy, even at the expense of short term narratives or optical ‘losses’ relative to other chains. At the same time, caution can be taken to extremes, and I will advocate for progressing with a change that provides measurable benefit once my personal technical background and expertise is satisfied to the safety of the change.

5. Economic Soundness - I believe that the Cardano Treasury is a tool to be used to accelerate these goals, and that refusing to use it is harmful. I also believe that decentralized governance is difficult and unproven, and it will be challenging to prevent abuse and exploitation of said treasury, and we should be vigilant in protecting the longevity of that treasury.

6. Effective Discourse - I believe that online discussions, in particular, is prone to toxic or ineffective discourse, and that it is our responsibility to fight against this rot. I believe in promoting healthy, active, vigorous, and good-faith discussions about a topic. I cannot disassemble someone’s position until I can argue it better than they can, and effective steel-manning is a key tool in such discussions. I believe that smart people can hold different values and beliefs, and will endeavor to understand before I dispute. However, such tolerance itself is not a capitulation to those beliefs, nor permission for those with different beliefs to violate my other values free of social consequence.

7. Transparency - I will publish a justification for any vote I cast both to my personal blog, and on-chain. I will recuse myself personally from any vote that would directly enrich myself or a project I am involved in. In such cases, I will publish an explanation for my recusal, as well as the normal justification for how I would have voted, if I were not recusing myself. If I ever find a need to recuse myself, and I have 1% of the total delegation, or feel based on past voter turnout that my vote would represent 10% of the active voting power, I will endeavor to minimize the disruption my abstention might cause to the voting dynamics, by announcing an independent 3rd party who I trust to vote in my stead according to my values, and will cast a vote as they direct me.

8. Flexibility - I understand that my values and beliefs may change over time, as do those of others, and that such evolution is healthy and deserving of praise. I will regularly re-evaluate my beliefs and publish an updated DRep platform if I feel that they have materially changed.

Motivation

My motivation to become a DRep is rooted deeply in my objectives and value system seen above. Additionally, I have an active interest in seeing the Cardano ecosystem evolve to it’s best form under the guidance of a multi-faceted ecosystem of experts and enthusiasts, and after 4 years deeply embeddded in the ecosystem, I feel it is my obligation to contribute to that.

As for why I am registering now, rather than earlier, it took several months to distill my beliefs down into a form I was proud to stand behind, and the Plomin hard fork seemed a fitting milestone to commit those beliefs to a tangible form.

Qualifications

I believe I am qualified as a DRep for the following reasons:

1. History - I have been involved passively in Cardano since 2018, and actively since 2021 when I joined SundaeSwap, one of the first DeFi platforms. In particular, for governance, this lets me understand long term trends and the context in which past decisions were made, which gives me key insight in evaluating potential protocol upgrades or parameter changes.

2. Technical expertise - I have 25 years of experience building reliable, scalable software, both as a hobby and professionally; I have a deep and intimate understanding of the Cardano protocol in particular, having delved its depths for the purposes of building SundaeSwap and Sundae Labs. In particular, for governance, this lets me understand the impacts and implications of the proposed parameter changes or upgrades, and make a more informed decision on their viability.

3. Contributions - I have consulted with dozens of Cardano projects across the ecosystem, including core infrastructural components. I have made numerous open source contributions to tools used across the ecosystem, both as maintainer and contributor. I have contributed to and commented on a number of Cardano improvement proposals, including the standard used to publish Governance metadata. In particular, for governance, this helps me understand the impact of a change or funding opportunity on a very broad swath of the ecosystem.

4. Communication - I am particularly skilled as a communicator, and am often told that my ability to present complex and highly technical concepts down for ‘layman’ consumption is highly valuable to the Cardano ecosystem. I have a long record of civil and productive discussions with members of the ecosystem who disagree with me, most prolifically via countless discussions on Twitter. In particular, for governance, this means that I can ensure my constituents are well informed of what a vote means, and why I voted the way I did.

5. Passion - I am passionate and selfless about my work in Cardano, as evidenced by my long and consistent history as a builder in the space and my public comments and actions. I care deeply about the future success of Cardano and it’s utility in providing for a better society. In particular, for governance, this means that my constituents can have a higher confidence that I will vote in what I believe to be the best interest of the protocol and society, rather than just my own best interest.

Conclusion

Hopefully, these writings are insightful to my thought process, and some few of you will consider delegating with me. If you do, I hope that you find my voting to be productive, informative, representative of your values, and beneficial to the ecosystem.

Please feel free to reach out to me at pi@sundae.fi if you ever wish to discuss a governance proposal and how I might or have voted.